On anotyher note Panic.....you can access your feedback and post a reply to his feedback on you. You can also file a complaint with ebay about his feedback. Please keep us updated on the results of this issue. Pa

As a member of the industry, as well as the Forum, I beg to make these observations:

I've got a Stiffs List that would make anyone cry.The AMCA forum forbids posting it as well.

I am not even registered for ebay.The risks and pitfalls there are endless. I must deal with the remote galaxy of lowlife that cannot resist "forgetting" to send a check after they receive my product.

I'm a bad business man because I have faith in the vintage enthusiast.

There is no serious community of vintage motorcycle enthusiasts, or producers, that will make an effort to support the industry that preserves vintage motorcycling, be it on the Web, at the Meets, or even in the courts.

Tom.... I don't know why you deal the way you do. I can see sending off a product to someone you know or know quite a bit about, but Your policy, seems to be, to send a product off, to all who requests it, prior to receiving payment. This world doesn't support such trust anymore Bro. It is sad I know, but that is reality. With folks you know it's, fine but with others, collect your dues first Bro ! With deep respect... Pa

if there's anyone still sending stuff to people who haven't paid for it, I want to know! Would be handy for a contractor who spends half his life sitting around waiting for companies to get around to paying him at some point...

I did some work a while ago for a major UK civils company, got their usual 'payment 30 days from invoice' form of order. 30 days, 60 days, 90 days.. nothing. Chased them up ( not for the first time ) and was finally told ' we don't even look at an invoice until we have had it 60 days' ie payment is routinely 90 to 120 days, assuming it is not queried ( as around 75% are ) and returned for resubmission with no indication of what exactly is queried, at which point the whole shuffle begins again. This is apart from not paying any invoices in Jan or Feb as a matter of course. And this is BEFORE the Credit Crunch....

Shoot, a man could have a good weekend in Dallas with all that stuff...

I've found that the bigger a company is the longer it takes them to pay an invoice. There is always some form, internal, external, or IRS that needs to be filled out and processed. They don't get around to discovering this discrepancy until the invoice is already 30-60 days out.Then it gets lost in their system and you have to re-submit, sometimes multiple times. There are exceptions to this rule, but overall the bigger they are the less they care about timely payments.

I already admitted I was a bad businessman, okay?I'm a dirty-fingernail person.

Waiting for a check to arrive, and then to clear before sending the work back is a needless delay that costs me as well as irritating anyone waiting to enjoy their machines.My prices would have to jump just to corner the extra paperwork each day.

Why punish the World for what one out of fifty commits?(Even South Borneo, INDONESIA payed me quicker than any local barfly,... or town cop come to think of it!)

Nearly always the work was sent to me, or requested at least in good faith, I'm certain, as the vintage scene is about as wholesome as a customer demographic can get. But with that aging demographic comes dead email addresses, indignant forgetfulness, and occasionally even a case of a true stiff: buried and untouchable. Rarely would I learn the fate.

But the trash who answer 'The check's in the mail" over and over and over are the ones that the rest of the industry would benefit most by identifying. Especially the commercial offenders.

If the industry could stop biting each other and merely compare notes, then not only could we reduce costs and please customers immensely, the bad apples would find themselves at the bottom of the barrel to rot without assistance. The way back up is simple, just pay the tab.

We have a tremendous communication tool at our hands with the Web, but as long as producers are fair game while consumers are sacred cows, we might as well go back to smoke signals.